Here I am with the abundant produce from our Sedona garden in the late sixties. My sister Connie joins me on the right. I lived in the old stone house in the center, named St. Exupéry after the author of Wind, Sand and Stars and The Little Prince.

What is the most important transitional moment in your life? Did a space open up and change you? Was a seed planted or a flame of wonder kindled?

Our latest Fire and Light podcast, “The Seed and the Space that Changed You,” addresses these questions. Dave Denny posted the meditation he wrote for the podcast, calling it “Seed, Flame, Opening: A Soulscape Meditation.” I love how he focuses on the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water.

My transitional moment occurred fifty-seven years ago on August 17, 1967, when I arrived in Sedona, Arizona to join the Spiritual Life Institute. My contemplative life began and my life-long love-affair with the desert.

I lived in a little “hermitage” made of yellow Coconino sandstone. I learned how to grow a garden, can and freeze vegetables, and cook for large numbers of people. I looked at the full moon as if I’d never seen it before, amazed that it was so bright, I could even see my “moon shadow.”

I learned about Carmelite spirituality, the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert, the importance of writing as a spiritual practice, the beauty of prayer and liturgy, community and service.

I read life-changing books that still inspire me: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton, Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

What people and books have influenced your life? What are your treasured spiritual practices? What landscape speaks most strongly to your heart and makes you come alive? How does that landscape affect your soulscape?

We all don’t need to write memoirs, but it’s good to be attuned to our own story, to the way our lives unfold “under the Mercy.” How do you tell your own story to your friends, your children, your grandchildren, to yourself?